Another world
by Rovia2323
Summary: What if Harry and Sirius fell through the Veil together? What if they found themselves trapped in another world? A world of the living dead? A story about Harry and Sirius' fight for survival as they join forces with a rag-tag group of muggles outside of Atlanta and the growing relationship between them. My First ever Fan Fiction story.
1. What the hell happened?

All recognisable characters belong to either J.K Rowling or Robert Kirkman and AMC

All around the Chamber there were flashes of different coloured light and the cracks of spells hitting their targets. Tonks lay unconscious on the ground, Mad-Eye Moody trying to revive her while simultaneously firing hexes at several Death Eaters. Remus and Kingsley were sending jinxes at another group while guarding the five teenagers behind them. Hermione and Ron watched out for Harry, who was duelling Bellatrix alongside Sirius in the centre of the Chamber by the Veil. The insane witch was cackling as the man and boys spells were cast aside with a flick of her wand, only to be returned with her own more lethal curses.

Sirius cast a quick shield as a deadly cutting curse was aimed at his throat, "is that the best you got?" he taunted his cousin.

Bellatrix threw him a sneer that Harry thought would make Draco Malfoy proud and fired a stunner at the two. Taken off guard, the red spell struck Harry in the chest and he felt himself get thrown backwards. Time seemed to slow for everyone else. All the other members of the order could do was watch as Harry fell back into the black veil that hung in the archway. Sirius gave a strangled yell and made a grab for his godson, ignoring Remus' yell at him to stop. The Order members, the Death Eaters and the teens were powerless to interfere as Sirius grabbed Harry's arm and was dragged by the boys weight into the Veil as well. The blackened curtain waved slightly as the two disappeared.

The teenagers watched hopefully, praying that their friends would step out from the other side of the archway, that it was all a clever plan to take Bellatrix by surprise. But there was nothing. Only a few seconds of silence as everyone looked at where Sirius and Harry had stood moments before. The only thought that ran through any of their heads was 'what happened to them?'

The first thing Sirius noticed was the heat. He could feel the burning rays of the sun hitting him, causing him to sweat in his wizards robes. The second thing he noticed was that he was laying on a hard gravel ground, stones digging into his back. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was fighting alongside Harry at the Department of Mysteries.

Harry!

Sirius' eyes snapped open. He was momentarily blinded by the sweltering sun that beamed down on him until he turned his head at a groan from behind him. Harry was laying a few feet away, rubbing his chest where Bellatrix's stunner had hit him.

With a groan of his own, Sirius climbed to his feet and, feeling years older than he was, made his way over to the teen.

Harry frowned up at him, "what happened?"

"I have no idea," hauling him to his feet, Sirius checked him over for any injuries. Finding none, he bent down and picked up the two wands that lay on the ground behind them. Handing Harry's back to him, he took in his surroundings.

They were stood in an ally way in what was clearly a muggle city, three sides of the ally blocked off by tall, bricked buildings. The only way out lead to an empty road.

Harry made to step forwards, only for Sirius to pull him back.

"I'll go first. You never know who or what might be out there."

Harry rolled his eyes, but allowed Sirius to take the lead.

Wand held out in front of him, Sirius stepped out into the street. Broken glass crunched underfoot as he took in the city buildings that towered around them.

The place was deserted. Rubbish littered the pavement, spilling out of overturned bins, rot growing on waste food caked to the floor. A car was laying a little way away, balanced on its roof and its windows missing from its doors, which hung half open. The surrounding shops had their doors off their hinges and windows busted open, the contents inside completely looted.

"What the hell happened here?" Harry stepped forward so that he was standing next to Sirius, his green eyes wide as he took in the desolate street.

"I have absolutely no idea," Sirius wrinkled his nose, "do you smell that?"

Harry sniffed the air and frowned, "smell what?"

"It's like something rotting."

"I don't smell anything. Is this some super sense thing that comes from being an animagus?"

"Probably. OK, wherever we are, it's clearly in the muggle world," Sirius immediately took charge, pointing at the remains of the car, "but it isn't London, that's an American licence plate."

Harry frowned at him, "how do you know that?"

"Took Muggle Studies. Peeved my mum off royally. I think we should find ourselves a change of clothes each before we do anything, our robes make us stand out like a sore thumb. There should be a clothes shop around here somewhere."

"Do you have any money?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "no, but it shouldn't be too hard to knick some." Seeing the frown on Harry's face, he shrugged, "I'm a convicted murderer on the run from the law after breaking out of the most heavily guarded prison on the planet. And you have been aiding me for two years now, I think we've both thrown caution to the wind."

"Fair point. Then what?"

"Back to England. I'm sure there is a house with a fireplace we can floo from somewhere around here. Just pray that MACUSA doesn't find us."

"MACUSA?"

"Magical Congress of the United States of America. Basically the American Ministry. We really need to teach you about the workings of the magical government if you want to be an Auror," Sirius began to make his way out through the street, wand lowered but still in his hand. Harry copied him as he followed. They only had to walk about a hundred feet before they reached the end of the road. The next street took them both by surprise. Whereas the street they arrived in was empty besides the wreaked car, this street looked like something out of a disaster film. The first thing they both noticed was a tank parked in the centre of the road. Rubbish cluttered the ground, army Jeeps parked at every corner. Posters had been attached to the walls and vehicles, phrases such as 'The End Is Nigh' spelled out in bold letters. Windows in the surrounding shops had been shattered and the insides looted. Harry noticed something that look suspiciously like blood coating the ground near them and turned to speak to Sirius, only to see his godfather had covered his nose and mouth with his hand and a look of disgust on his face.

"Please tell me you can smell it now?"

"Harry sniffed the air again, and this time could definitely smell something rotten, "yeah now I can."

Sirius seemed to hesitate for a second, before stepping forward towards the tank, "it's coming from over there," he said, his curiosity overcoming his disgust slightly.

As the two made their way to the giant army vehicle, Harry spotted a newspaper on the ground and quickly grabbed it. "Hey Sirius, listen to this. 'It is vital that no one approaches a person or persons who are showing symptoms of the infection. Everyone must stay in their homes until the US. Army has arranged an evacuation point in your area of residence. The symptoms include: discolouration in the skin, little motor control, little awareness of their surroundings. Signs that you may be infected include: burning fever, weakness in limbs, trouble breathing and on occasion, regurgitating up blood."

"Sounds pleasant," Sirius was frowning at the paper in Harry's hands, only to turn his attention to the tank as they reached it.

Harry looked up when he heard Sirius swear very loudly.

Hanging off the edge of the tanks roof was a body. A man, fairly young looking, dressed in military uniform, with his skin turned a pale grey. There was a tear in his face, the flesh of his cheek missing to reveal muscle and yellowed teeth. That wasn't even what was most disturbing. When Sirius spoke, the body moved. It turned its head towards them and dried, milky eyes snapped open to stare sightlessly. Then, it began to growl, reaching out with uncoordinated arms towards them.

Sirius stepped forwards and waved his wand over its outstretched arm. His frown deepened, only to quickly be replaced with fear. He waved his wand again, only this time there was a sudden loud bang as the man's head proceeded to explode.

"Sirius!" Harry's eyes widened in shock as skull fragments and brain matter fell to the floor with a loud splat.

"I'll explain in a minute, first, we need to get out of the open," Sirius was looking up and down the streets, wide eyed and pale. Grabbing Harry's arm, he dragged him down towards an old hole-in-the -wall clothes shop, the only one with its windows still intact, "wait here." Sirius disappeared within the darkness of the building, leaving Harry standing dumbly outside in the empty muggle street in his Gryffindoor robes and wand still clutched in his hand. There was a few minutes of silence before Sirius reappeared and gestured for him to come in. "Sorry, but I needed to check that there was nothing in here. That man back there was a zombie."

"A zombie?" Harry asked in confusion, "why would there be a zombie in the muggle world?"

"You would be surprised how often it happens. Normally some Aurors deal with it and obliviate any muggles who might get involved, but that clearly isn't the case here. I would have thought you would have learnt about them in Defence Against the Dark Arts by now."

"Professor Quirrell mentioned an encounter he had with one once, but everyone in my class is convinced that he was lying about it."

"Right, well, they are basically the same as the bad muggle films say they are. Rotting flesh, eat people, very stupid. Spread the infection through bites and scratches. There's no cure."

"And you're saying there has been an outbreak here?"

"Yes. I'm surprised the American Ministry hasn't done something about it," Sirius fell silent for a moment, eyeing the entrance to the shop like he expected a dozen zombies and Aurors to charge in at them, before shaking his head, "lets get changed, then find ourselves a fireplace somewhere. I've got some floo powder left over to get back to Grimmald Place from the Ministry, I know the spell to connect the fireplaces. When we get back, I'll let Dumbledore know of the situation here. Then it's his problem."

"Sounds good to me," Harry said, with a grin identical to Sirius'.

The two quickly changed into the few choices the clothes shop offered them, Harry was pleased to note that Sirius was much better at dressing like a muggle than some other wizards he had encountered. Then, both clad in jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt each, they made their way out into the muggle world again.

A/N, this is my first ever Fan Fiction, so please rate and review.


	2. Where the hell are we?

A/N. Thank you very much for the great response. I didn't expect to get so many follows in such a short space of time. For this story I will just be following the main plot line of The Walking Dead in the show and I doubt I will be detouring from what is shown on the show much. I will try to make my chapters longer soon, this is still just my first story and I am still trying to find my rhythm. Unfortunately, all recognisable characters either belong to AMC or JK Rowling and not myself.

Sirius had quickly made the decision to head out of the city, as zombies gravitated towards places where they was, or had once been, a lot of people. Therefore, the closer they were to the city centre, the more zombies there was likely to be. They were hoping to find themselves a house with a fireplace that they could floo from on their journey out. He needed to get Harry home. That was the most important thing right now. Home and away from danger. Well, home was away from danger until Voldemort attacked again. He thought back to the fight at the Ministry. He had gotten cocky, taunting Bellatrix like that. Cockiness got you distracted and reckless, and distracted and reckless got you killed. The were lucky to just get transported to America, they should have died. He really didn't want to think abut what that Veil was meant to do, Although its placement in the Death Chamber was a bit of a give away.

He looked over at Harry. The teen was looking around him at the towering buildings and the crashed cars that littered the street. No doubt this was his first time visiting another country.

He could have lost him today.

Although they had only known each other for a two years (and he had been on the run from the law for the majority of that time), Harry was the most important thing to him. He would die for the kid, and he would kill for him. Nearly did, he thought. He would have killed Wormtail that night in the Shrieking Shack if not for Harry's interference. The rat was too close to Harry for his liking, could have returned to Voldemort with Harry as a hostage far to easily. He should have killed him. If he did, the rat couldn't have helped Voldemort come back to full strength, that Diggory boy would still be alive and Harry wouldn't be so traumatised. And the Ministry wouldn't be making up so many cruel lies about him. When they got back, they were going to figure out a way to put everything right. The Ministry needed to get their heads out of their behinds and do something, rather than sitting around and hurt his godson, in more ways than one. Despite what some people (aka, Severus Snape) said, Sirius was not an idiot. He had noticed the cuts on Harry's hand, caught a glimpse of them when they were getting changed. He didn't know how, but his gut was telling him that the Ministry had something to do with it, he would bet his life on it.

Glancing around him, he wondered if America had any issues with the Death Eaters. Hell, he wouldn't have been surprised if the Death Eaters had been the ones to unleash the virus onto the country, sounds like something they would do the cause panic. Although that didn't explain why the American Ministry hadn't acted to stop it in any way, or why Britain hadn't heard of it happening.

Harry's voice jolted him out of his thoughts, "do you think they will have a fireplace?" He was pointing at some fancy looking restaurant at the end of the street.

"Worth a look," Sirius nodded in agreement and the two approached the expensive wooden doors, which screeched when they were opened.

The inside was surprisingly untouched. Large tables made of polished wood were spread out across the spacious room, covered in white table cloths that reached the floor. The chairs were all perfectly tucked in and plates and cutlery were placed out ready for customers. The floor was covered by a hideous floral carpet, peach, pink and purple flowers that looked like something that Petunia Dursley would have favoured. The walls were painted an ugly maroon. There was a fireplace on the back wall, but it looked like it was once mainly for decoration than anything else. But it would do the job.

"Keep an eye out for me while I set it up to the floo," Sirius said while he started waving his wand around the fireplace. Harry didn't even try to think about how he was going to do that, so he just turned to watch the empty restaurant.

After a few minutes, there was a huff of annoyance from Sirius, "it's not connecting!"

"I thought only the Ministry could connect fireplaces?"

"Legally, yes. Illegally, there are several methods, none of which are working," Sirius gave another huff, "I can send a patronus, but there will be a higher chance of being traced."

Harry couldn't help but grin when he saw his godfathers patronus, a bear-sized, silvery, shaggy dog.

"Go find Dumbledore and tell him what happened," Sirius ordered it.

The dog patronus cocked its head to one side as if it couldn't understand him. Sirius frowned, "find Remus." Again, no response, "Made-eye? Tonks?" the dog barked before fading away.

"What's wrong?"

"It wasn't registering my order."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that it didn't recognise that Remus, Dumbledore and the others existed."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. Kreacher!" the two fell silent, listening for the familiar crack as the miserable house elf appeared in the room.

Nothing.

"That's not right. He always responds, he has to." The older man's frown was deepening by the second.

"So, what do we do?" Harry was starting to get worried.

Sirius was silent before speaking, "there was a talk back during the first war that Voldemort and his followers had allies in the Department of Mysteries that were working on a way to travel from one world to another. We never heard anything of it so we all dismissed it as just a rumour. Harry, have you ever been able to sense the magic around you?"

Harry blinked at the random question, "what do you mean?"

"Wizards and witches can sense magic. You were raised in the muggle world, when you entered the magical world for the first time, did you feel anything?"

"Err.. I remember once feeling odd when I went to Olivanders to buy my wand. But I didn't really think much of it after, why?"

"All of those wands together in one place would have made the magic more prominent. Magic is everywhere, and as the magical government is normally set up in the muggle cities, the city will have very faint magic in the air. There is none here."

"Are you saying this place is a parallel world without any magic and we are now trapped here?"

"Yes."

Harry gaped at him, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. He had seen and experienced many crazy, unbelievable things since joining the magical world, but this was a new level of crazy and unbelievable. After a moment he managed to find his voice, "how come we can still use magic?"

Sirius shrugged, "maybe because we're not originally from here."

"Well, what now?"

"We get out of the city. I don't want to think about how many more zombies are wandering round here and I don't want you to get hurt. We find a place to hide out for a bit while we figure out what to do. Maybe see if we can find more people, safety in numbers and all that."

"OK," Harry was more than willing to let Sirius take the lead here, "what if we find more people and they start asking questions about us?"

"I'll think of something. I'm good at lying. Had to be if I wanted to get away from McGonagall without detention, James was a pathetic liar."

Harry laughed, breaking the tension as the two left the restaurant.

The two walked through the empty streets, Sirius filling the time with stories of the Marauders and the pranks they pulled during their Hogwarts days and a few of the escapades that they got into after, most of which seemed to end with Sirius and James getting yelled at by Lily while Remus somehow always got away with a quick scolding from her. Wormtail was never mentioned.

Sirius was in the middle of telling Harry about the time he dyed Dumbledore's beard purple, when he wrinkled his nose again, "there is another one nearby."

Harry quickly looked around, but didn't see anyone else around.

Then he saw a lone figure round the corner, staggering slightly as it walked. It had once been a woman, its blonde hair falling on either side of its face like a greasy curtain. Its skin was a greyish brown and sunken, stretched tight over the bones of its skull. The lips had rotted away, leaving yellowed teeth bared, and its eyes were yellow and faded and staring straight at them. Its dress, once a pale pink, was stained with blackened mud and blood. Rips and tears covered the fabric that hung off its skeletal frame. Turning to face them, it let out a cracked, low throaty growl and made its was towards them, arms outstretched as it moved, slowly and stiffly, like a sleepwalker.

Sirius raised his wand again, only to pause when another, a man, appeared from the same corner. And another. And another. Sirius' eyes widened in shock as a group of around forty zombies herded towards them, his gasp of surprise being drowned out by the chorus of groans and snarls that emanated from the small army of undead that marched towards them.

"Harry, come on," he urged, pulling the teen along, "we'll have to go back, we can't take on that many at once."

Harry, eyes widened in surprise at the pack that had found them, nodded slightly dumbly and followed Sirius as he lead them down a connecting road.

The growls of the zombies followed them, the group moved surprisingly fast. Sirius glanced back at the pack, only to look forwards again to see themselves cut off ahead by another, slightly smaller, but still large group. The ones ahead seemed to stare for a moment, as if their sudden appearance had startled them, only to recover quickly, and they too moved forwards to join the hunt.

With a groan of his own, Sirius pointed his wand at one and with a crack like a gunshot, the dead creature dropped to the ground. He pointed at another, about to do the same again, when he heard a shout come from one of the shops to their right.

"Hey, over here!"

Harry and Sirius turned to look, taking time to note the man standing in the doorway to the building waving them over. As the zombies neared, Sirius made a split second decision and grabbed Harry's arm and all but dragged him to the shop.

"Come on, this way," said the man, slamming the shop door closed on the dead before gesturing for the two to follow him, moving with surprising speed towards the back of the shop, a worn pack bouncing on his back as he ran. Not stopping to think about it, Harry and Sirius followed.

The man lead them out to the back door of the shop, into a back ally not unlike the one they arrived in, where a single car sat parked. The man paused to unlock the car, then gestured for them to get in, "I'm guessing you guys are wanting to get out of Atlanta, huh?" he panted as he started the engine and driving out of the ally, "cause if you are, I'm willing to give you a lift."

"Appreciate it," Sirius said, slightly breathless from the amount of running they had done in such a short space of time."

"No problem. Is it just you guys or do you need anyone else picked up?"

"Just us. Thanks again anyway."

"You British?"

"Yeah," Sirius looked at the man who was sat in the drivers seat from where he sat in the back. The man had removed his backpack, which was now sat in the passenger seat, and had pushed his baseball hat up to reveal Asian features. He was younger than Sirius originally thought, maybe only early twenties.

"You have a destination in mind? 'Cause I'm sure the people at the camp I'm staying at won't mind if you hang out with us. Well, a few will, but they will be outnumbered by the rest of us."

"If you're offering. I'm Sirius, and this is Harry."

"Nice to meet ya," the younger man grinned at his through the rear view mirror, "my name's Glenn."

A/N. And there is chapter two. I had hoped to get it up sooner, but things happen, ya know. I hope I've managed to keep the characters true to themselves, so let me know what you all think. Merry Christmas to everyone out there, I'll try to get chapter three up as soon as I can. Rate and Review.


	3. Making new friends, remembering the old

Making New Friends and Remembering the Old.

The drive was made in silence, the two Brits sat in the back of the car taking in the surrounding city as Glenn directed the vehicle through the abandoned streets. There were no people in sight, the only life being a handful of zombies wandering aimlessly in the road, a pack of stray dogs scavenging in some overturned bins and flocks of birds flying in circles in the sky. There were patches of the city that looked like they had been severely burned, the buildings, roads and pavement charred and blackened. Almost every shop had been looted, windows broken and doors busted off their hinges. The only sound was the dull groan of the cars engine. Glenn kept glancing at them through the review mirror, clearly the adrenaline from running for his life had worn off and now he felt awkward having two strangers in his car. Sirius didn't blame him.

Harry was sat silently next to him, watching his surroundings through the window. He was frowning slightly, a look of complete concentration on his face. Sirius didn't need to be a mind reader to know what he was worrying about: the others back home. He was thinking about the same thing. He hoped that nothing had happened to Remus and the rest of the Order after they fell through the Veil. He dreaded to think what the likes of Bellatrix could have done to them. But being in a world without any magic made it difficult to find themselves a way to travel back. He just considered themselves lucky that they could still use their own magic. Although it would probably be best if the people at Glenn's camp didn't find out about it, they would most likely freak out and then expect them to use magic to solve every problem that came up. No, it was best to keep them in the dark regarding that. He just prayed that this camp was as accepting of them as Glenn claimed they were. Speaking of them…

"How many of you are there at your camp?"

"Err..." Glenn thought for a moment, "around thirty."

"And you're sure that they will all welcome us?"

"Well, I know of two, maybe three, who will most likely complain. But the rest should be fine with it, they've never turned anyone else away."

"How long has the camp been there?" asked Sirius, hoping to get a time frame to how long this zombie apocalypse had been going on for.

"Around two weeks. This little group of people set the place up right at the start when the city got overrun and the army just bombed the place. The rest of us joined after."

Two weeks! It had only taken two weeks for an entire city to become overflown with zombies! The thought made Sirius' head spin.

Harry must have been listening in because he suddenly snapped out of his presumed daydream to gape at the young man driving the car before asking, "but isn't there any more army or government trying to figure out a cure or something?" He remembered that Sirius said there was no cure, but the muggles didn't know that.

Glenn shrugged and looked at him through the mirror, "if there is any government, they're not here. And they're not focusing on finding other survivors. The army didn't manage to contain the walkers when they got in the city, just eventually fired bombs at them. Might of killed a load of walkers that way, but they also killed lots of people who had been told to go to Atlanta for protection. Not everyone made it out when it got overrun.," he saw the horrified look on his passengers faces, "depressing, ain't it."

"You got out."

"I was never in. Saw the explosions from the highway though. Thought I was gonna be sick. Jim got out though. You'll meet him when we get to camp."

Not knowing what to say to that, Sirius and Harry just exchanged a horrified look and fell silent, back in their own thoughts again. It should have taken a lot longer for Atlanta to be completely overrun. And the thought of all those people who had gone there, looking for safety, only to be killed by the very people who were meant to save them. Sirius could kind of understand, the army was most likely trying to stop in infection from spreading, but the thought of Merlin knows how many men, women and children being killed like that made him feel like he was going to puke. He thought of the zombies that had attacked them before Glenn showed up and wondered how many had been victims of those explosions.

"Where is this camp?" Harry asked in a not so subtle change of subject.

"Up at this quarry, just off the highway."

"What were you doing in the city by yourself?"

"Scavenging. A few people brought food with them and there are a few guys who hunt in the surrounding woods, but it's not enough to get us all by for long."

"Did we interrupt you? Because we can help you find more before we get there if you want."

"Don't worry, I've got some stuff in the trunk. It'll last us a few days."

It took around fifteen minutes until they reached the highway, and another half an hour to reach the quarry. The road was abandoned, the multiple lanes separated by a single concrete wall. One side was piled with traffic, the vehicles packed together pointed away from the city, the people who had tried to escape. No one could be seen in the cars, their occupants having abandoned them to run on foot, leaving everything behind. As they moved up to the quarry, the road got narrower and rockier and more trees grew on either side. They were almost level with the top when Sirius noticed the camp at the top. There were cars and tents in different colours scattered around the clearing between the trees, small, unlit camp fires built here and there. A white RV was parked in the very centre, a little red and white umbrella set up on top. People milled around, washing clothes or collecting firewood. They all looked over as the car pulled up into the camp.

Glenn immediately climbed out; Sirius hung back for a moment and turned to Harry, "You OK?"

Harry nodded, eyeing the crowd gathering outside as well. He noticed a small group of kids a little younger than him a few feet away, some women he presumed to be their mothers hovering near them.

The two Brits climbed out of the car just as a man with curly black hair stepped forwards to speak to Glenn. He paused when he saw them, "who is this?" He had an authoritative air about him, and Sirius could immediately tell he was viewed as the leader of this group of people. A shotgun was flung over his shoulder, which made him tense up slightly.

"This is Sirius and Harry. I ran into them in Atlanta, I said they could stay here, if that's OK," Glenn looked expectantly at the man and Sirius briefly wondered if he was one of the ones who would be reluctant to allow them to join.

"You'll have to pull your weight," the man spoke directly to Sirius, "but other than that I don't see a problem."

"That's fine," Sirius looked him in the eye, "nether of us are strangers to hard work."

"Good. I'm Shane Walsh. You have anything with you?" when Sirius shook his head, he shrugged, "I'm sure there is a spare tent around here somewhere you can use." Shane then turned back to Glenn and started questioning him on what he had found while out scavenging in the city.

A pretty young blonde stepped forwards, "Hi, I'm Amy, I think Dale might have a spare tent somewhere, we can check with him."

"Thank you," as Sirius moved to follow her, he noticed another blonde, older than Amy, eye his suspiciously, but also followed her. Judging by the physical similarities between the two, Sirius guessed them to be sisters.

Dale turned out to be the owner of the RV, a white haired man in his sixties with a fisher man's hat perched on his balding head. He was poking about the engine of the RV alongside a younger bearded man in a worn baseball cap. He looked up as they approached and also cast a suspicious glance at Sirius and Harry.

"Dale, this is Sirius and Harry. Glenn met then in Atlanta. We were wondering if you have a spare tent for them?"

"Yeah, I think I have one more, I'll dig it out."

Harry zoned out the conversation between Sirius and the others in order to take in the camp. The curly haired man, Shane, was still interrogating Glenn, about supplies or them he didn't know (although he suspected it was the latter). The kids were being herded away by their mothers, still casting curious glances at him. He guessed that there weren't many other kids around here. Other people were scattered around, most of them ignoring them. One man was cursing and shooting them glares, clearly one of the ones who was against them joining. Another two men weren't standing too far away, the elder of the two, a tough looking man with a military style buzz cut, looked like he agreed with the cursing man, the other was ignoring everyone around him completely, his attention focused entirely on an old worn crossbow in his hands. He prayed that no one would cause any trouble for them.

Night had fallen within only a few hours of their arrival. Sirius and Harry soon found themselves sat around the small camp fire with several members of the group. Dinner consisted of some kind of canned vegetable and a meat that turned out to be squirrel, which didn't taste as bad as it sounded, hunted by the crossbow man earlier that day. It had been cooked by two of the women in the group.

Harry already decided that he liked Amy, she was very bright and optimistic, even in the hard times that were occurring. This contrasted with her sister, Andrea, who behaved very cynical and serious, when not doing her chores she practically hovered over her younger sister as if she expected the girl to be suddenly attacked in the middle of the camp. Amy and Andrea had helped the two Brits to set up the spare tent, neither having much experience with camping, Harry only having been at the Quidditch World Cup and Sirius never at all. It had also quickly become clear that Amy was the unofficial babysitter of the group, by the way two of the other kids in the group had quickly been pawned off on her when their mothers began to cook the food.

The two kids were likeable enough, although neither really spoke to them, although that could be put down to the possible traumas they may have faced. He quickly noticed that they were only comfortable around a few people in the camp and mainly stuck together. They both sat with their families now, the boy, Carl, was with a brunette woman and Shane at the same camp fire as them. The girl, Sophia, was sat with the cursing man and a mousy little woman with short grey hair, her parents he assumed. Although he had only just met them, the cursing man had been quick to remind Harry of Uncle Vernon. That family sat alone, avoiding any contact with any of the others they lived with. The only others who sat away from the larger camp fires were buzz cut and the crossbow man.

"So how did you guys get to Atlanta, if you didn't have a car?"

Harry was once again jerked out of his daydream, this time at the sound of Shane's voice. He shook his head and scolded himself, thinking that Mad-Eye would probably throw a fit at his lack of vigilance at the present time, or any time for that matter, only to feel another pang of worry in his gut for his friends.

"It broke down on the highway and we got overrun when we tried to restart it. We had to leg it the rest of the way to the city," Sirius didn't even hesitate in his answer, and Harry considered that he had probably planned out an entire cover story on the drive there.

"Lucky you weren't bit."

"Was a close call. We're just grateful that you lot let us stay here."

"Where in England are you from?" asked the brunette woman in a poorly hidden attempt to change the subject. Clearly, she wasn't comfortable talking about the dangers that were occurring outside the safety of the little camp.

"I'm from London, Harry's from Surrey, about an hours drive away from where I live."

"You don't live together?"

"Not until recently, no." Both Brits noticed the confused look on the muggles faces; Sirius glanced at Harry, asking a silent question about how much he should say about their relationship. Accepting the barely noticeable nod, he turned back to the muggles, "I'm Harry's godfather, he lived with his aunt and uncle before. We were supposed to come here for a sort of road trip to get to know each other when the world decided that it wanted to end."

"Oh – we assumed..."

"Don't worry about it."

"How comes you didn't always live together?" asked the brunette, slightly tactlessly.

"Er… his parents will was lost until a few months ago, we didn't know he was supposed to live with me until recently."

Harry was glad that Sirius was able to come up with an excuse so quickly; he didn't think they would react very well if they knew that Sirius was really in prison for mass murder for over a decade, whether he was guilty or not.

"Well that's got to be quite a big change for you, Harry," the brunette addressed him for the first time.

Harry nodded slightly, "not a bad change. I've never got on with my aunt and uncle and cousin. Sirius is a lot cooler than them." Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sirius send him a grin.

"That's a bonus, I guess."

Silence fell on the small group again for a few minutes, the only sound being the muffled chewing as people ate their dinner, the crackle of the small fires that didn't really do anything to keep away the cold and the slight murmurs of the other, even smaller groups around the other camp fires. Eventually, the muggles began to talk among themselves again, leaving the two wizards to listen in to their conversations. Harry used this time to try to learn a thing or two about each one, anything to stop himself from slipping back into his depressing thoughts. It looked like Shane and the brunette, who was addressed as Lori, were together, and Carl was their son, although he noticed that Shane didn't wear a wedding ring. Rather, Lori wore one around her neck, which made him think that there was something else going on, as he couldn't think why Shane wouldn't wear it. Andrea and Amy both seemed close to the old man, Dale, although unrelated. There was a family of four, the Morales family, the youngest of whom was a bit of a chatterbox and one of the few who Carl seemed comfortable talking to, and two other people, a black woman called Jacqui and the man in the bearded man in the baseball cap, Jim. Harry remembered Glenn saying that Jim was one of the people who escaped the city. The man didn't participate in the conversations much, only answering when people asked him a question, instead focusing on his food, and Harry briefly wondered if he had lost someone in that city.

After about half an hour, people began to utter goodnight and depart to their respective tents, with the exception of Dale, Andrea and Amy, who all left to sleep in the RV.

"Come on, you look like you're about to pass out," Sirius nudged his arm and Harry suddenly noticed how exhausted he felt. He noticed Lori pause to question Shane about going to bed, but the man just shook his head and muttered something about wanting to stay on watch for a while; Harry noticed him sending a distrusting look towards buzz cut man as he said it. Said man was sitting slouched outside his tent. He too was watching Shane, but with a slight smirk and a glazed look in his eyes, like someone who had just been impiriused. Crossbow man had long disappeared into the tent without a word to anyone.

The tent they were staying was decent sized, not as large as the ones some of the others had, and they only had sleeping bags rather than cots like everyone else, but it was better than they could have had and Harry was just glad that they weren't stuck sleeping on the floor. He sat down on one of the sleeping bags and watched as Sirius sat on the other, looking at him expectantly.

"You're worried about the others." It was a statement, not a question.

Harry nodded.

Sirius sighed, running a hand though his long hair, "they're all a tough lot, I'm sure they'll be fine. I know word had been sent to Dumbledore about what was going on, he was on his way when we arrived. He'll protect them."

Harry nodded dumbly, scratching slightly at the cuts on his hand, something that Sirius took note of. "If I hadn't been stupid enough to believe that vision Voldemort send me, we wouldn't be here," he blurted out.

"Hey, it's not your fault. It's Voldemort's, and Bellatrix's. And mine as well."

"How's it your fault?"

"I taunted Bellatrix. Got cocky and over confident. If I hadn't, I might have been able to block her spell before it hit you."

Harry thought about it, but didn't like blaming his godfather for their current problems, "let's just blame Voldemort and Bellatrix and pretend that neither of us are responsible," he suggested.

Sirius laughed.

"And Kreacher," he added as an after thought, "I called Grimmald Place on the floo and the elf told be you weren't there, that's what made me think you were in trouble."

"Yes, blame him."

"Yeah. And I meant to ask, what was that spell you used on the zombies back there? Just, I might need to do that too."

"Reducto. If you concentrate hard enough you can control how powerful the blast is."

"How come you didn't just do that on the zombies back in the city? I mean, I know there was a lot of them, but me have an advantage."

"It would have taken too long to kill them one at a time, and too dangerous with just the two of us. And any bigger explosions would have caused them to be blasted about in all directions, and might blow up part of the street too. I didn't want to risk you getting hurt."

"Oh, OK." Harry tried and failed to suppress a yawn.

"Come on, bed. We'll deal with everything else in the morning." 'Including questioning about those cuts on your hand,' Sirius silently added, watching as his godson climbed into the sleeping bag fully clothed and fell asleep almost instantly, comfortable in the fact that his godfather wouldn't let anything happen to him.


	4. Settling in and drama

"So what are we gonna do?"

Harry looked expectantly up at Sirius as the older man paced back and forth within the small space the tent allowed. The sun had risen barely an hour before, casting light through the blue fabric of the tent, yet they could both already hear the sounds of the muggles moving around outside.

"I can't think of anyway to get back home, if that's what you're asking," Sirius glanced down to where the boy sat on the bed, "I think the only thing we can do now is stay here, safety in numbers and all that, and survive."

"What about our magic? Do we let them-" Harry gestured vaguely in the direction of the main camp, where the muggles could still be heard talking among themselves, "- know about it?"

"No," Sirius shook his head like a dog, "they'll go expecting us to solve every problem they have with magic, until eventually they may get angry when we're unable to bring their dead loved ones back. Plus, they might freak out, or turn out to be like your aunt and uncle, you know how some people are. It's best they don't know."

"I guess. We do have an advantage over them that could be more than slightly terrifying."

Sirius hummed in agreement, "we best check at some point if we are still able to apparate. I can still change into Padfoot, which is another bonus, I checked last night while you were sleeping."

"Why didn't we try apparating yesterday?"

Sirius had the decency to look sheepish, "I wanted to have a better look around the city, maybe see if there was anything that might tell us how everything happened. Besides, I'd need to know where we were apparating to, and I don't know this city." He looked down at Harry in concern, "I know this isn't an ideal situation, but we're gonna have to work with what we got. And pray that we're still alive at the end of it. As of right now, you are my primary concern."

"Blimey, Sirius, I haven't seen you act this grown up in a while."

Said grown up did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out, "cheeky brat," but quickly turned serious once again, "speaking of concern, are you gonna tell me what happened to your hand?"

Harry looked down at the mentioned limb, which he had been unconsciously rubbing, "it's nothing. Just cut myself, that's all."

He tried to subtly hide his hand behind his back, but Sirius grabbed it. The older man's eyes darkened when he took in the words carved there, and although he spoke calmly, Harry could hear the barely contained anger in his voice, "Who did this to you?"

Harry winced at the tone, but knew better than to lie to him, "Umbridge made me write lines with this quill during my detentions with her."

Sirius looked ready to kill someone, "I'll kill her. Why didn't you say anything? You've been having detentions with her since the start of the school year."

"I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she got to me. Besides, she wanted me to go to Dumbledore. I couldn't let her win."

"You could have told me. Or any other member of the Order."

"I was worried that you would do something that could risk you getting caught. You've the only family I have left, I didn't want that."

Sirius' expression softened a bit, although he still looked like he wanted to punch something, "don't hide stuff like this again, Harry. If someone hurts you, I want to know, regardless of the circumstances. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded.

"Good. Now, let's go and see what they've got for breakfast."

Breakfast turned out to be cold cooked squirrel from the night before and some kind of canned fruit that Glenn had brought back from the city, poured into bowls by the brunette from the night before, Lori.

"I hope you guys are OK with more squirrel," she greeted, "it's about the only thing we don't have a shortage of round here." She sounded rather annoyed about it.

"You should be a bit more grateful, Lori," spoke up Jacqui, "Daryl goes out into the woods every morning before the rest of us wake up to hunt food for us, risking his life every time," she explained to the two wizards.

"Just wish he would bring back something else every now and then, that's all," Lori said rather defensively, "maybe he would if he took his brother with him when he does," she gestured towards the tent that Buzz cut and Crossbow had disappeared into the night before."

"I don't see Merle doing much in the way of help. Daryl can't help what animals are in the woods, he gets what he can, and as I said, we should be grateful."

Harry zoned out the two women's bickering as he turned to watch the other muggles making their way around the camp. Dale and Jim were both talking to each other as they poked about in the front of the RV, which he was pretty sure they had been doing the day before. Amy and Andrea could be seen in a tiny boat out on the water at the bottom of the quarry. Carl and Sophia were running around with two other kids from one of the other smaller camp fires the night before. Sophia's mother, a woman with short grey hair named Carol, was at the waters edge cleaning some clothes, her husband watching her. Shane wandered around at the tree line, but made a beeline for them the second he realised they were awake, "Sirius, hope you don't mind helping out straight away on patrols?"

"That's fine."

"You ever used a gun before?"

"I can learn."

"All right. I'll show you the route after you've eaten."

"Is there anything you need me to do?" asked Harry.

"Nah, you don't worry about anything right now. If we need something, we'll let you know."

"Are you sure. I'm an all right cook, and I did the washing at my aunt and uncles house all the time." Harry didn't particularly want to be stuck doing nothing, preferring to have something to do. Otherwise he would having nothing to do other that brooding and feeling useless, both of which he knew he was often guilty off back home.

"Don't worry, there are plenty of people around here to do those jobs."

"Maybe you could hang out with Carl and Sophia," suggested Lori, "Carl was talking about you last night. You're a little older than him, so naturally he automatically thinks you're pretty cool."

"Really? I don't think many people have ever considered me cool before," Harry muttered dryly, thinking about all the first years who looked at him in awe at the beginning of each school year until the excitement of being at school alongside the famous Harry Potter had worn off.

Sirius heard him and quickly disguised his snort of laughter as a cough.

"Well to a twelve year old, you're cool," said Lori, not catching his sarcasm.

Harry shrugged, but thought he might as well try to get to know the other kids, he was going to be around them a lot anyway.

Once Sirius had disappeared towards the tree line with Shane, Harry had quickly found himself dragged over to where the kids were playing, although they stopped almost immediately so that they could interrogate him.

"What's it like in England?" questioned the young, dark haired girl, Eliza. She was rather small, probably around ten with pretty Hispanic features. Her younger brother, Louis, was glued to her side, watching the conversation.

"Err… well, it's colder than it is here," answered Harry awkwardly, "and, err…"

"Mrs Grimes said that Sirius isn't your real dad. Where's your real one?" piped up Louis.

"Louis, it's not nice to ask those kind of questions," scolded his sister.

"No, it's OK. He died when I was a year old. So did my mum."

"How?"

"Car crash," said Harry, remembering the lie the Dursley's had used when he was younger.

"Oh. Who is Sirius then?"

"He's Harry's godfather, like Shane is for me," said Carl to the younger boy, before turning to Harry, "I sort of know how you feel. My dad died at the start of all this. He was a cop, but he was shot and put in a coma. Shane said he died during the evacuation."

"I'm sorry."

Carl shrugged and kicked at the stones and dirt on the ground, "s'alright. I've got Mom and Shane."

Sophia remained silent throughout the conversation, but Harry noticed a look on her face that looked strangely like envy. While Carl was talking, she looked down the quarry to where her father stood with a mixture of anger and fear. Thinking back to how the man had quickly remained him of Uncle Vernon the night before, Harry dreaded to think of why she would look at her father that way.

"What's that on your head?"

Harry was once again snapped out of his thoughts, this time by Louis' voice, "a scar. I got it from the car crash." Harry lifted up his fringe to show the younger kids the lightning bolt carved into the skin of his forehead.

"Weird shape."

"Yeah," Harry glanced around him at the adults moving around the camp. Sirius had yet to reappear, "so what do you guy's normally do around here?"

"Nothing really," said Eliza, "Sophia helps her mom with chores sometimes, but we are mostly left to do whatever we want, as long as we stay where our parents or Dale can see us. And we can't leave the camp, in case a walker shows up. We can't go near any of the weapons that the adults use either, in case we set them off or something. Glenn brought us back some board games though, we can play one of them if you want."

"All right."

The only board game that Harry ever really played on a regular basis was wizards chess, which he was pretty sure they didn't have. They didn't have muggle chess either, it turned out. However they did have various other muggle games. They ended up playing Cluedo, or Clue, as it was called there, where Carl proceeded to beat them spectacularly, figuring out that Miss Scarlett was the culprit with the candlestick in the Hall long before any of the others.

It was the sound of shouting that drew the kids away from the game and towards the main camp. Shane and Buzz cut were both standing in the middle of the camp, spitting insults at each other. They were both practically incomprehensible at the speed they were talking, but from what Harry could make out, Buzz cut had made some kind of comment towards Andrea, who had returned with Amy a few minutes before, and the older blonde had been quick to take offence. The man with the crossbow, Daryl, Harry remembered, was standing watching the shouting match with a mixture of annoyance and long suffering, not unlike the look Mrs Weasley would get on her face when Fred and George caused some kind of trouble, although Buzz cut clearly caused a completely different kind of trouble than the twins did. When Buzz cut took a step towards Shane, Daryl quickly jumped forwards and practically dragged the older man towards the tree line.

"What's the matter, man, we were just having a nice little chat?" Buzz cut drawled, he sounded slightly drunk and had the same glazed look in his eyes as the night before.

"Merle, will you shut the hell up," Daryl practically growled the words out, his southern accent just as pronounced as his brothers.

Merle just laughed, but allowed himself to be pulled away and out of sight.

Harry looked around and caught sight of Sirius approaching him, "what happened?"

"That Merle guy made some racist comment towards Glenn, and when Andrea tried to stand up for him, he called her a whore."

"He says stuff like that all the time," said Amy, who had wandered over, "he gets high, tries to pick a fight with someone and ends up being dragged into the woods by Daryl to cool off."

"Why not make him leave?"

"It was considered, but then Shane pointed out that Daryl would leave with him, and he's the only one around here who knows how to hunt," she noticed the frowns on their faces, "I know it's not nice, but it is the truth. If he thought we could get by without Daryl and the supply of fresh meat he brings in, they would probably be gone. And at leased I does help out, he hunts sometimes and will take watch and patrol. Which is more than can be said for Ed," she jerked her head towards the Uncle Vernon like guy, "the only reason he is still here is because he has a wife and daughter."

"Why not threaten to kick Merle out until he stops?"

"Because he knows we need him and Daryl right now. If they do leave, they will still be better off than us, they have experience in survival. They were practically made for this world."

Sirius didn't look happy about it, but seemed to accept it. Harry could understand why. Merle seemed like a loose cannon about to go off, a bigoted one at that. One that had all the skills to keep everyone alive.

"Anyway, Glenn is going to go on another supply run in the city, he said he'll try to collect up a couple changes of clothes for you. If you need anything else, just let him know."

"OK, thanks," the two wizards watched he walk away before turning back to each other, "lets try not to get on the wrong side of Merle. I don't want to risk hexing him," Sirius suggested.

"Fine by me. You were on patrol for a long time."

"Oh, he showed me the route pretty quickly. He really just wanted to interrogate me, make sure I'm not like Merle, you know."

"Well, lucky you're the complete opposite to him."

"I should hope so. There are many things I hate, and racists are near the top of that list. Never mind about that, what have you been doing while I was gone?"

"I was interrogated myself," Harry gestured towards the other kids, who had started another game of Cluedo, "and then I lost at a board game."

"Sounds fun," Sirius glanced at the tree line in time to see Shane disappear again. About half a minute later, he was followed by Lori, who glanced back to make sure Carl was OK before disappearing also. Knowing that Lori was most definitely not one of the ones on patrol, he didn't need to be a genius to figure out what was happening there, "come on, lets see if there's anything else Glenn can bring back for us. At least let him know out sizes of something." He had a feeling that between Merle, Shane, Lori and the zombies, there was going to be a lot of drama soon.

A/N, sorry for the long wait. Afraid this chapter is mainly filler, but things will speed up soon.

Also, does anyone know if chupacabra's exist in the HP universe.


	5. Encounters

Another World Chapter Five

It had been almost two weeks since Harry and Sirius had joined up with the group of muggles outside of Atlanta, and they still had no idea how to get home. After quickly checking that apparation was still possible, Sirius had disappeared back to the city where they arrived, but was unable to detect any possible way to get back through the Veil. He also created an unauthorised portkey to London, only to find that Grimmald Place didn't exist. A quick apparation around the city also conformed that magic did not exist in this world, the Ministry, St. Mungo's and even Hogwarts all being missing. Even Little Whinging was gone, Sirius having gone to check there out of pure desperation. But there was a large population of zombies. The disease was not limited to America alone. It was also quickly discovered that they weren't just in a different world – newspapers scavenged in both countries had revealed that the year was two thousand and ten, fourteen years into the future for them. That was a little unnerving, Harry pointing out that he should be twenty-nine, almost thirty. Sirius decided not to think about how old he should be.

Therefore, it was decided to remain with the muggles in Georgia, where they at least had some friends to help watch their backs. Most of the muggles had been welcoming, even Merle and Ed having stopped giving them the evil eye after a few days, and they had a few friends among them. Amy and Glenn had been quick friends, and Harry got along well with the other kids in the group (Harry found it a relief to have no one know that he was famous, and had no intention of telling anyone in this world).

Lori, on the other hand, could be outright annoying and whiny, complaining about every little thing and could be demanding at times, especially towards Shane. She also seemed to be the only person who was capable to boss Shane around, it was clear the man would bend over backwards for her and Carl. Shane annoyed Sirius slightly. The guy seemed to automatically expect respect from everyone else, just because he was a police officer before the apocalypse. Sirius had no problem with law enforcement in general, and believed that many of them did deserve respect for the dangerous jobs they did. On the other had, Shane didn't really do anything to earn that respect. Sirius had seen him patrol a handful of times and keep watch on top of the RV once or twice, but other than hat he didn't really do anything. About once a day he would disappear on what he claimed was patrol, but judging by how often Lori ended up following him and the two reappearing together with dirt covering their messed up clothing, he very much doubted that much patrolling occurred.

Dale spent most of his time either trying to get the RV working or keeping watch on top of it, but due to his age that was understandable. Daryl was normally out hunting at the crack of dawn to hunt and was not seen again for several hours, but always brought back a large collection of dead squirrels for them to eat, and even then always took a turn on patrol. The only other time he was ever really seen was when he was dragging his brother away from yet another fight, which seemed to occur about once every two to three days. Merle didn't really do anything. He disappeared out into the woods about once a day also, but always returned high as a kite and would end up making racist or sexist comments towards whoever he felt had annoyed him at the time. The women mainly stuck to the domestic tasks of washing clothes and cooking food, although Andrea and Amy occasionally went out on Dale's boat to catch some fish. Glenn went out almost every day to the city, alone, returning with different supplies for the group. Due to this, Sirius felt that Glenn deserved more respect than anyone else in the group.

There was one other person that had caught Sirius' attention. The mechanic, Jim, was odd. He had caught him staring at him and Harry a lot, a vacant look in his eyes mostly, like he couldn't quite see them, but on the occasion he would stare like he didn't quite believe that they really existed. He mainly kept to himself, drifting on the outside of the group, mingling only with Dale on occasion, helping him on his never ending quest to get the RV working. There was something off about him, he just couldn't place what.

It was around four weeks into the outbreak that Shane made an announcement, "I think we should send a larger group to the city with Glenn on the supply run tomorrow. Cover more ground and get more supplies, also provide more protection. Any volunteers?"

Looking around, Sirius saw Andrea raise her hand almost immediately – he had heard her complaining about how the women of the group were all stuck with the domestic jobs around camp, although Harry had finally managed to get them to accept his help. There was about a minutes silence before Morales and Jacqui also raised their hands, albeit reluctantly.

"Merle, how about you?" asked Shane expectantly, looking at the other man.

Merle raised an eyebrow, but then just shrugged. Sirius wondered why he was suddenly willing to help out, maybe he had run out of drugs or something.

Daryl didn't react to the news that his brother was going on a most likely life threatening mission, rather looking slightly relieved that he was going to get some peace and quiet the next day, only to suddenly look at Merle with suspicion.

Sirius clearly wasn't the only one taken by surprise by the elder brothers sudden helpful nature.

"All right, the five of you leave in the morning."

Sirius was glad that Shane didn't volunteer him. Although going on the supply run had its perks, he didn't particularly want to be separated from Harry. He turned around, planning to check some wards that he had set up around the camp during his patrols, when he almost collided with Andrea.

"Hey, Sirius, would it be OK if you watched Amy for me while I'm gone tomorrow? I know she's old enough to look after herself now, but I still worry."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Sirius could kind of understand, there was a time when he would have done the same for Regulus. On his way towards the tree line, he watched as Daryl grabbed Merle and dragged him away from the others, hissing questions at him, no doubt about why he agreed to go to the city.

Merle quietly responded to his younger brother, looking completely serious for once, causing Daryl's eyes to suddenly grow wide with surprise, then narrow and he gave Merle a look that was a mixture of uncertainty and disgust.

Sirius raised his eyebrows, but didn't pursue the matter. It wasn't any of his business. And he had wards to check. Although they would alert him if anything without a heartbeat crossed into camp, it was useless at stopping them.

The group of happy volunteers for the supply run had already gone by the time Sirius and Harry had woken up the next morning, and it wasn't until late afternoon when most of them returned. Lori was sat in the middle of the camp, giving a miserable looking Carl a hair cut while the two talked to Shane. Carol was hanging out some washing while Ed scowled not to far away. Daryl had once again disappeared off into the woods, muttering something about being back the next morning as he went.

Sirius had been sat on top of the RV on watch, Harry sitting with Amy trying to figure out which of the mushrooms she had scavenged from the woods were edible when a shrill alarm began to echo around the quarry.

Shane practically flew out of his seat at the sound and was yelling up at Sirius, "What is it?"

Sirius grabbed a pair of binoculars that Dale had left on the RV and looked out at the road leading up to the camp. A bright red car, blaring the alarm out, was speeding its way towards them, causing a large cloud of dusk to admit behind it, "Car. Can't see who's driving it."

"Is it them? Are they back?"

The car practically flew up the dirt road towards them, skidding to a halt. A moment later a grinning Glenn climbed out of the drivings seat.

"Holy crap! Turn that damn thing off!" Dale yelled at him.

"I don't know how!"

"My sister, Andrea, where is she?" Amy looked slightly hysterically

"Pop the damn hood!"

Glenn's head disappeared back into the car to do as Shane ordered, yelling "Yeah, Yeah, she's OK" back at Amy's questions.

"Why isn't she with you?" Amy demanded as Jim shut of the alarm, sparing everyone's ears from having to listen to the screech any longer, "she's OK?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine. Everybody is," Glenn suddenly looked slightly awkward, "well, Merle not so much."

"You crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? You trying to draw every walker for miles?" Shane snapped.

"I think we're OK," said Dale.

"You call being stupid OK?"

"Well the alarm was echoing all over these hills, it'd be hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing, just saying," Dale added as he took in the look Shane sent his way, "It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" he gestured at Glenn.

Glenn looked embarrassed, "Sorry," then added, "I got a cool car" slightly awkwardly.

Sirius couldn't help but agree.

Dale raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips slightly, but then turned his attention to the sound of another vehicle, a truck this time, pulling up just behind the red car.

The truck parked and Morales climbed out of the passenger seat. The back opened and a relieved looking Andrea jumped out and made a beeline for Amy, both women practically tackling each other, sobbing.

"You scared the shit out of me," Amy cried, while Jacqui followed the elder blonde out and Eliza and Louis ran over to greet Morales.

As Sirius looked over at the welcoming committee, he saw a tearful Carl being lead away by Lori, who got down on her knees down to talk to him.

"You are a welcome sight," laughed Dale, hugging Morales, "I thought we had lost you guys for sure."

"How did y'all get out, any way?" asked Shane, flinging his shotgun over his shoulders.

"New guy, got us out," said Glenn.

"New guy?" Shane looked surprised. He wasn't the only one, no one new had arrived after Sirius and Harry.

"Ya," said Morales, "crazy Vato just got into town," he turned back to the truck, "Hey, Helicopter Boy. Come say hello. Guy's a cop, like you," he added to Shane.

The new guy came into view and stopped and stared at Shane in shock. Shane, looking equally shocked, stared right back, his shotgun falling limply to his side.

"Dad!"

Carl came hurtling over and the man grabbed him and held him tightly against him, looking like he was about to laugh and cry at once. Lori looked even more shocked and slightly fearful, watching the man with wide eyes as he carried her son and approached her. When he reached out, she seemingly broke out of her daze and clung to him just as tightly.

'That must be her dead husband,' thought Sirius. He turned to look over at Shane. The other man was watching the family with a blank look of shock on his face. He snapped out a moment later and gave them a forced looking smile, looking rather conflicted. Sirius could almost hear the cogs turning in his head as he attempted to process what he was seeing.

Another quick glance at the returned group caused another question to pop into his head.

"Where's Merle?"

Night had fallen, and the group were all gathered around their respective camp fires. Lori's husband, Rick, was retelling his story, of how he had woken up in the hospital only the day before and was saved by a man and his son, Morgan and Duane, before coming to the city in search of his family. "Disorientated," he said, "I guess that comes closest. Disorientated – fear, confusion – all those _things,_ but… disorientated comes closest."

Dale hummed slightly, "Words can be meagre things. Sometimes they fall short."

"I felt like I had been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from."

Sirius could relate to that. He had thought the exact same thing when he broke out of the shock of what had happened with Peter, only to find himself behind bars, surrounded by creatures that slowly eat away at anything good that he felt.

"Mom said you died," Carl said quietly from where his head lay on his fathers lap.

Rick glanced at Lori before turning his attention to Carl again, "she had every reason to think that, don't you ever doubt it."

Lori still looked guilty, "When things started getting bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened."

"Well, I'm not surprised, after Atlanta fell."

"Yeah."

"And from the look of that hospital it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive," Shane added gruffly, "I barely got them out, you know?"

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it."

Shane gained an unreadable expression on his face. Sirius couldn't help but wonder how grateful and expressive Rick would be if he knew that his loving wife and his best friend had been sleeping together.

Shane's expression suddenly turned into a glare that was aimed over Sirius' shoulder, "Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?"

Sirius glanced around and saw that the Peletier camp fire had grown, golden embers raising up into the night.

"It's cold, man," was the only response.

"Cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so that we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once."

Sirius zoned out the conversation as Shane got up to confront Ed, it wasn't an argument he hadn't heard before. He made a mental note to find a way to disillusion the whole camp and the people in it without anyone noticing. The basic wards round the tree-line had been easy to put up during patrol, but any other charms near people would be tricky without raising suspicion.

He heard the sound of Ed snapping at Carol before some more quiet conversation and then Shane returned to his seat at the main camp fire.

Then Dale decided to address the elephant in the room, "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."

Sirius had to agree. True to his word, Daryl's hunt had lasted overnight.

"I'll tell him," said Rick immediately, "I cuffed him on that roof. It's on me."

"We could lie," Amy suggested, somewhat hesitantly.

Andrea shut down that idea within a second, "we tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he would have gotten us killed," she turned to address Rick, "you did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it was nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale looked sceptical, "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise, we are gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"That's if he even cares," muttered Shane, "he might be relieved. You can't deny that they aren't exactly close siblings. Hell, Merle has thrown a fair few punches at Daryl over the past few weeks, and Daryl actually looked glad that Merle was leaving for the city for a few hours. I'm pretty sure Daryl hates Merle."

"Just because he hates Merle, doesn't mean he doesn't love him," Sirius eventually spoke up. At everyone's confused looks he gave a reluctant sigh, "I hated my younger brother, didn't talk to him for years. Yet when I found out that Reg was missing, and we didn't know who killed him, and that we didn't even have a body to bury, it was the worst day of my life. Or close enough."

"How did you know he was dead, if you didn't have a body?" Lori asked, once again displaying a lack of tact that could rival Ron's.

"He joined this group, nasty lot. Racists, sadistic murderers, the lot of them. One day he tried to get out, but he had lots of information on their inner workings, and once you were in that group, you were in. He tried to leave, and ended up missing barely a week later. It is always best that you know what has happened to your loved ones, even if you hate them. It is always harder not knowing. Daryl will care."

He ignored the pitying looks that his little story got from the others, instead focusing on Harry, who was practically leaning on him when he was talking, which was slightly comforting.

It wasn't long after that the group began to disperse towards their respective tents, with the exception of Shane, who had decided to go up on watch, eyeing Rick, Lori and Carl's tent from atop of the RV.

Harry dropped himself down onto his sleeping bag the second they entered and looked up at Sirius, "did you really hate your brother?"

"Didn't really hate him, more the fact that he allowed himself to be turned towards Voldemort's side and his behaviour as a result."

"And you think that Daryl has the same relationship with Merle?"

"Similar. I've been watching them and Daryl has only ever seemed to have a problem with Merle when he is playing up or getting high. When they are just minding their own business away from everyone else they get along fine. Dale's right. We are gonna have our hands full when he gets back."

"How do you think he will react? I mean, Daryl is normally more level headed and calm, but this involves his family, so he could turn violent."

"I think Rick should watch his back when he tells him what happened."

Harry nodded, "it's good that Carl has his dad back."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, "are you OK?"

"I'm fine."

"That means you're not. You're jealous."

Harry huffed slightly, "a little," he admitted, "I won't deny that I wish my parents would miraculously come back from the dead. But it could be worse. At least I'm not a complete orphan, I have you."

Sirius gave him a small smile and reached over to wrap one arm around him. It suddenly occurred to him that this was the first time he had ever really hugged Harry. Harry seemed to notice too and, though looking slightly surprised, leaned into the embrace.

"Come on, it's late. You should get some sleep."

Harry nodded and climbed into the sleeping bag, falling asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

The next morning was tense to say the least, the arrival of Daryl hanging over everyone's heads, dreading the upcoming fallout. And it didn't take long for the drama to begin.

Harry had been quickly put on babysitting duty by Lori, and Carl and Sophia had wanted to explore the woods around the camp. He had been reluctant at first, before caving to their pleas and deciding to just make sure that they didn't cross over the wards. There hadn't been any alerts to any zombies getting through them, so it must have been relatively safe. They had just ventured out slightly, when Harry saw the air ahead flicker slightly.

His view obscured by the surrounding hedges, he held his hand out to stop the younger kids from coming any closer. "Wait here." He moved up ahead, and took a glance at the figure crouched behind the plant-life.

A zombie was bent over the carcass of what he recognised to be a young deer. Its neck was almost missing, held in place by only a small amount of muscle as its flesh was torn away. Two crossbow bolts were sticking out of the deer's rear.

Harry heard an intake of breath, and turned to see Carl and Sophia staring in shock at the sight. The zombie clearly heard too as it suddenly looked up and gave a deep throaty growl.

Sophia promptly screamed and bolted, Carl on her heels. Harry followed, figuring it best to not let the kids out of his sight, only to run into Sirius on the way back to camp.

"It back there?" was all he asked, disappearing in that direction at Harry's nod. Harry noticed Rick, Shane, Jim and Morales follow, each armed with a different weapon. A huffing Dale wasn't too far behind them. Harry hesitated for a moment, before also following.

He arrived back at the site of the dead deer just in time to see Dale remove its head with a single swing of his axe.

The group of men stood around, catching their breath from their quick sprint, before Dale spoke.

"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain."

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," muttered Jim in his usual dry monotone.

The others all nodded their heads mutely in agreement, only to suddenly tense up at the sound of snapping branched and footsteps coming from the trees. Shane snapped his shotgun in the directing of the noise. A split second later, an annoyed looking Daryl stepped into view. He took one look at the dead body on the ground, and his scowl deepened.

"Oh, Jesus," Shane breathed, and lowered his gun, although Harry noticed that he still kept a tight hold of it.

"Son of a bitch," Daryl swore, looking at the sight before him in disgust. "That's my deer. Look at it all gnawed on by this...filthy...diseased-bearing...motherless...poxy...bastered!" With each word, he gave a swift kick to the limp body on the ground.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping."

"What do you know about it, old man?" Daryl swiftly turned on Dale, "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond?'," he turned back to the deer and yanked out the two bolts, grumbling to himself, "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" he turned to address them, gesturing to the missing chunk from the deer's throat.

"I would not risk that," Shane responded. Sirius looked slightly disgusted at the idea also.

Daryl sighed, "that's a damn shame. I got some squirrel...about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." It was amazing how quickly he could suddenly calm down.

There was a gagging sound coming from near their feet, and they all looked down to see the severed zombie head snapping its teeth together, as if it were trying and failing to bite at their ankles.

"Come on people, what the hell?" a single bolt pierced the heads temple. Daryl moved forwards and pulled it out, then looking exasperated, muttered "it's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothin'?" He trudged back to camp, the string of squirrels tied to his belt swinging slightly as he walked.

"Well, he sure made a good first impression to Rick," Harry muttered sarcastically to Sirius as they followed.

Sirius smirked at him, before looking at him seriously, "it didn't attack you did it?"

"No, I backed off before it could."

"Good. Whenever you see one, either back off and get either one of the group or myself or kill it immediately. I know you know the spell."

"OK." Harry couldn't help but inwardly marvel at how much more mature and responsible Sirius had been since arriving in this world. It had taken a few days of confusion, but he had soon realised that it was all because he was finally out of Grimmald Place. He always knew that being trapped there hadn't been good for Sirius, but it wasn't until recently that he realised how badly living there had affected him. However, in the past two weeks, Sirius hadn't touched any alcohol, hadn't lost his temper over mild things and hadn't had any episodes of depression or recklessness. He was a lot more like how he was when Harry would speak to him during his forth year, wise, funny and always trying to protect him. For that, Harry couldn't help but resent Dumbledore a little bit for making him stay locked up there.

They jogged slightly to keep up with the rest of the group, and arrived back in the main camp in time to hear Shane speak.

"...Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta."

Daryl squinted slightly at him, before asking carefully, "he dead?" His tone was short and indifferent, but Harry thought he could hear an undercurrent of worry beneath.

"We're not sure," Shane answered honestly.

"He either is or he ain't!"

Rick sighed and stepped forward, "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it..."

"Who are you?" Daryl interrupted.

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" Harry could hear the underlying threat in his voice, and quietly gripped his wand in his pocket. Sirius obviously heard it too, as he moved carefully to stand in between him and the angry man.

"You're brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him to a roof – hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick was standing prepared, ready for the upcoming attack that was most likely to come, and despite it all, Harry couldn't help but admire his bravery.

Daryl was silent for a moment and turned away, looking thoughtful, "hold on. Let me process this." He spat out in a sarcastic tone, "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, _and you left him there?!"_ His voice rose to a shout.

There was a seconds silence, then Rick uttered a quiet "Yeah."

Rick barely ducked to avoid the string full of squirrels that came sailing towards his head, only to have Daryl suddenly launch at him. Daryl was cut off by Shane shoulder barging him out of the way.

"Watch the knife!" someone yelled as Daryl pulled his blade out from his belt and swung it in Ricks direction. However, Rick moved forwards and grabbed the hand holding the knife and pushed it away from him.

Daryl, surprised by the sudden move, didn't see Shane, who had come up behind him and caught him in a choke hold. Rick twisted his arm and knocked the knife out of his grip. It was a short, anti-climatic fight, but it was clear to Harry from how the two men automatically knew what the others plan of attack was that this wasn't the first time that this had happened to them.

"Choke holding's illegal," Daryl spat from where he had been wrestled into the dirt.

"Yeah, well, you can file a complaint," Shane muttered dryly.

"I'd like us to have a calm discussion. Do you think we can manage that?" asked Rick, repeating the question when Daryl didn't immediately reply.

There was a moments silence, before Daryl nodded and Shane let go.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work or play well with others. We never meant to leave him, the key to the cuffs got lost down the drain in our hurry to get out of there. But we padlocked the door closed so that the dead couldn't get at him." Despite the tense situation, both Harry and Sirius had to admire Ricks calm and bravery when talking to the angry redneck.

Daryl sat in the dust on the ground panting for a few more seconds, before clambering to his feet, "to Hell with all of y'all. Just tell me where he is, so I can go get him." He looked close to tears.

"He'll show you," Lori suddenly spoke up from the sidelines. She was staring intently at Rick, as though trying to send him a silent message, "ain't that right?"

Rick watched her for a moment, before looking back at Daryl and nodding in confirmation, "I'm going back."

Lori looked disappointed, and turned to disappear into the RV without looking at him.

The atmosphere in the camp after they left for the city was tense, to say the least. Taking the truck that they had arrived back in, Rick and Daryl had left, a reluctant and miserable Glenn having been convinced to tag along as a city guide. They had barely been gone for five minutes, when Lori had promptly voiced her disbelief that Rick had actually gone back and left her and Carl again. Shane had been quick to join in, only for Lori to snap at him and disappear back to her tent.

Sirius was quick to get sick of the two of them. The way he saw it, Lori had volunteered Rick for the job. He knew that she had probably been aiming to get him to say that he wouldn't go, but the second she spoke, she would have planted the idea into Daryl's head and he would have demanded that the man accompanied him, and Sirius dreaded to think what would have happened if Rick had said no. She was probably thinking about her affair with Shane, Sirius was curious to how her level headed husband would react if he found out.

Eager to get away from them, Sirius had quickly excused himself for patrol, heading toward the tree line a bit further up the hills on the quarry. He had invited Harry to come along, but he had already been convinced to help Carol, Andrea, Amy and Jacqui do some washing. Sirius looked down from his position in the trees to see his godson at the waters edge with the four women, only to tense up when he saw Ed watching them nearby. He might not have seen the man do anything yet, but he didn't like the thought of him being near Harry. He knew the boy was uncomfortable around him as well.

He was about to head back down, a quick scan confirming that the wards were still in place, when the sound of shifting soil caught his interest. Following the sound, he was surprised to see the sight of Jim, spade in hand, digging a deep hole into the hardened ground, sweat pouring off of him and skin reddening from the heat of the sun.

"Jim?"

The other man barely spared him a glance.

"What'ya doing?"

No reply. Sirius moved forward and tapped him on the shoulder. Jim jerked up suddenly and gave Sirius a wide eyed, deer in the headlights look.

"Jim, what are you doing up here?" Sirius glanced around and saw several more holes dug into the ground, six feet deep and cut into a rough rectangle shape. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the holes were for. "Expecting something bad to happen, are you?"

"What does it matter? I'm not bothering anyone up here."

Sirius put his hands up in surrender, "I'm just curious. It looks like you've been up here for hours."

"Yeah. It's taken everyone a while to notice too. Everyone should start keeping an eye on each other, you'd think that would be a given, but everyone is always wondering off. You don't have that problem. You've always got one eye on your boy. Make sure you always do that." Jim turned back to the hole in the ground, "I don't even remember why I'm doing this, but it cant be good."

Not for the first time, Sirius felt himself thinking that the man might be a little unstable. He was just considering going back down to the camp, planning on leaving the man alone for a while and checking up on him again later when Jim looked up again and stared him straight in the eye.

"Sirius, what's your full name?"

Taken aback by the strange question, it took Sirius a second to respond, "Sirius Orion Black. Why?"

"Just wondering," Jim glanced around himself at the holes around him, "that should be enough. Hopefully I'm wrong and they won't be used." He seemed suddenly edgy, like he was nervous to be around Sirius, "I should probably head back down."

And he suddenly high-tailed it down the hill, shape gripped in his hand tightly like he was ready to defend himself.

The rest of the day passed surprisingly quickly. Soon, night had fallen and the rest of the camp had all gathered around the fire for dinner, consisting of some fried fish that Andrea and Amy had caught from the lake. Sirius had eaten his quickly and then promptly excused himself to sit atop of the RV. Although there had only been that one zombie, he was still on edge and wanted to know immediately if any more appeared. One of the first wards that he had put up some repellent charms created especially for zombies, but it clearly hadn't worked. The only reason he could think of was because, as this world had no magic, the zombies were naturally not made via magic themselves, and therefore unaffected by the surrounding wards, as that particular form of magic needed some other magic to react against. So they were limited to simple wards that alerted them when someone or something walked through.

He looked down at the camp, seeing Harry keeping Sophia company. The girl and her mother both were rather tense – the rest of the group had witnessed Ed strike Carol earlier that day when she tried to defy his orders to go with him. Ed was lucky that neither Sirius or Harry had witnessed this, otherwise he would have found himself on the receiving end of some less than friendly curses. However, Shane – who had been on edge ever since Rick had come back – had witnessed it, and had taken the opportunity to take his frustrations out on Ed's face. Said man was currently alone in his tent, having been left to lick his wounds.

Sirius was also concerned about Jim, although he couldn't figure out if he was concerned of him or for him. The man had seemed skittish for the rest of the afternoon, giving him nervous and avoiding him like he had some horrible plague. He was the same towards Harry. He wondered what had set him off. He has been cautious around them before, but when Sirius told him his full name, now he was outright fearful. And why had he been digging?

He was interrupted from his thoughts when he felt the familiar jolt through his body that indicated that something had just moved through the wards around the camp, his magic alerting him immediately. He turned in the direction it had come from, attempting to see whether it was just an animal or a zombie. The rotten stench that suddenly hit his nose confirmed the worst. Then he saw them, about thirty, shambling through the dark maze of tents that surrounded the RV, moving rather quickly despite their staggering walk. Lips pulled back in toothy snarls and yellow faded eyes.

"Walkers!"

The rest of the group jumped immediately in a panicked scramble to safety, screams filling the night as the zombies entered the main camp, launching themselves on those who had been too close to the tents

"Get to the RV!" Shane screamed, shotgun already out and blasting the heads off of the dead that were coming their way.

Sirius did a quick scan and quickly found Harry, relieved to see he had his wand in his hand almost instantly. A zombie stepped in the teens path and Harry stumbled slightly before firing a small Reducto, brain matter splattering over his clothes.

Sirius followed suit, aiming the spell into the crowd of undead that had gathered below him, preventing him from being able to climb down. He kept the shot gun in his other hand, hoping to pass of the shots as gun shots later. He watched as Harry quickly made it to the RV, where Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophia were already being shielded by Shane and Dale.

It was chaos, the dead snarling, the living screaming and gunshots filling the clearing. Sirius vaguely registered the sight of Rick, Glenn and Daryl emerging from the tree line and joining the battle, but even with three extra guns it was a massacre. It took several minutes for the horde of undead to thin out, and even then, they continued to persist. The screaming didn't stop until the last of the dead dropped to the floor. And even then it didn't stop the sobbing.

It was a short and devastating fight.

Sirius dropped the gun and scrambled of the RV, stashing his wand back into his pocket as he hurried towards Harry, who looked startled and exhausted, but otherwise unharmed. He was staring wide eyed out into the carnage, taking in all of the bodies littering the ground. That was when Sirius registered the familiar voice crying.

Two blondes were resting not too far away, one laying on her back, blood gushing from the wound on her neck as her eyes gazed sightlessly up at the clear sky, her sister screaming and shaking her, begging her to respond.

"No, no! Come back! Come back! No, Andrea No!" Amy continued to shake her sisters body, her screaming filling the night.


	6. What Happens Now?

It was quiet in the camp the next morning. Everyone was moving around in a daze, seemingly oblivious to everything going on around them, focused only on moving the bodies of the dead. Those of the zombies had been chucked on to the fire pit, the smell of burning rotten flesh filling the air. Those of the lost survivors had been stabbed in the head with a pickaxe by Daryl and piled into the back of his truck to be moved up to Jim's dig site, to be buried. They didn't want to risk any of them waking up and restarting the attack.

Harry had been sent into the RV by Sirius, with strict instructions to stay put, something that the other parents in the group had followed suit. Carl, Sophia, Eliza and Luis were all sat together around the table, having been given some playing cards by Lori in a vain attempt to keep them distracted from what was going on outside. Amy had locked herself into the 'bedroom' of the RV, refusing to speak to anyone after Andrea had been taken away.

Harry had sat himself into the driver's seat. The angle of the vehicle meant that he had a clear view of the main camp, but couldn't see the fire, or the bodies of their own dead, Daryl having moved his truck away so that the kids wouldn't have to see them. As much of a prick as he seemed to be, he was considerate enough to do that. He'd clearly been pissed off the whole morning, raming the axe into each head a lot harder than necessary. Harry had noticed that Merle hadn't returned with the search party, who had arrived midway through the attack. He wondered if that meant that Merle was dead. He didn't know how he felt about that. Merle was an arsehole, but Harry could imagine the fate he must have suffered and he wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well, maybe Voldemort. Or Snape. He shook his head, trying his hardest to think of something else.

The sight of Andrea and so many others lying there lifeless, eyes staring off into the night without seeing anything, when they had been alive and healthy only hours before, had shook him. All he could think about was how Cedric's eyes had looked exactly the same. He'd felt the exact same terror in that moment of the attack that he had when he had seen Voldemort appear in that graveyard, not knowing what was going to happen or if he was going to get away. Only this time it was worse. This time, he wasn't alone. before , it had only been himself, Voldemort and Wormtail, and later a few free Death Eaters. He only had himself to worry about. And even in the Department of Mysteries, yes, he hadn't been alone, but the people he was with were more powerful and more experienced than him, fighting against vastly outnumbered enemies, some of them having been a bit rusty in their reflexes after so long in Azkaban.

This time, he was surrounded by a dozen defenceless muggles, only a few of them had known how to fight, and before the search party had shown up, only two had guns. He was very aware of the fact that he and Sirius were the only ones powerful enough to take out any of the zombies without endangering themselves, and even then they had been limited on what they could do, being unable to take out large groups at a time without either hurting the muggles or revealing their magic to them. It had been a risk of discovery with the few spells that they had used in the fight. Harry didn't think anyone had seen him, too caught up in their panic, but he had caught Jim giving Sirius scared and suspicious looks since the night before. He wondered if Jim had seen them. And if he had, would he say anything to the others. Harry had noticed Jim acted oddly in the past, often saying things that didn't always make sense, and everyone in the group had largely ignored him. But then he had dug those holes - no, dug those graves - the very same night that the attack had happened. The exact same amount of graves as there were bodies. Harry didn't think that was a coincidence, and judging by the questions that several of the muggles had asked, he wasn't the only one. Jim had just muttered something about a dream he had and disappeared off to continue with the clean up. Sirius had been sending Jim equally concerned looks, having obviously come to suspect something as well.

Other than Jim, no one else seemed to have noticed anything, the lack of light created by the spell and the short bang being easily mistaken for a gunshot. So, it was a relief to have some peace and quiet for once. Honestly, other than the fact that there were undead cannibals having taken over, this world was quite relaxing. At least there was no homicidal megalomaniacs haunting his dreams and trying to kill him. He hadn't had a single nightmare or vision since arriving.

The sudden sound of shouting from outside broke him from his thoughts. He looked out of the window to see several members of the group crowded together, engaged is some kind of argument. Or, rather, Shane was aggressively yelling something at Rick, who seemed to be yelling in defense and Lori was trying to get between the too. Dale stood slightly to the side, pacifically holding up his hands in a clear and failing attempt to get everyone to calm down. Glenn, Jacqui, Jim and Sirius watched everything from the sidelines, Sirius, Glenn and Jacqui looking like they were debating jumping in. Jim just looked amused. Getting up, Harry mover to open the door, noting that the other kids had stopped in their game and were listening in as well. Opening the door, he was finally able to make out the words that they were shouting.

"How would you know, man? You've been asleep for the past two months. How in the hell would you know anything?"

"A man I met back in King County told me…!"

"Was this guy a medic or a soldier or something?"

"No. Or at least, I don't think so…"

"You don't think so?"

"We had other stuff going on, I didn't get a chance to find out what he did!"

Shane rubbed a hand over his head, looking stressed. "So for all we know he could have been talking complete shit!"

"Oh come on. With everything going on, what government is left would protect the CDC at all costs," Rick looked like he was about to start begging, "And it's close by. We wouldn't have to go far."

"We'd also have to go deeper into the city. Do you want to risk that?"

"It's no more dangerous than travelling a hundred miles to an army base that may not even exist. Do you want to risk that? Enough people have died already, do you really want us to lose more?"

"We wouldn't have lost so many people if you hadn't disappeared off on a wild goose chase after a drug dealer, dragging our best fighter with you!"

"Ok, for starters, I didn't drag Daryl anywhere," Rick argued back, ignoring Glenn's indignant 'Hey' at the comment, "And secondly, you guys had, what, two guns? Yours and Dale's. We managed to get more while we were out there. If we hadn't, our loses could have been a lot worse."

"You keep telling yourself that, man."

Sirius interjected then, "You can both throw blame around all day if you must, can we just get back to the matter at hand. I personally think both of your suggestions are shit."

"Oh yeah, and why is that?" Shane really didn't look like he cared what Sirius thought. Rick at least looked willing to listen.

"Well, for starters, I see no reason why Fort Benning would be any safer than Atlanta. With the rate that everything has happened, chances of there not being over run are most likely pretty slim, even with the fire power they have. And as for the CDC, well, this has been going on for - what? Two months? That's not enough time to create a cure. And if there are military personnel, the scientists inside are going to be their primary concern, not a small group of civilians."

"Well then where do you suggest?" asked Dale, trying to keep the peace. Shane looked like he was going to start yelling again.

"The coast," he said simply.

Rick looked confused, "The coast?"

"Yeah," Sirius shrugged, "The ocean would block off one side, meaning we wouldn't have to defend it. I'm no expert on the dead, but judging by the difficulty they have walking I'm going to assume that they aren't very good swimmers either. People visit the beaches all the time before, so there will be shops with supplies inside. Fish from the ocean, and I'm sure there must be a way to make seawater drinkable. Plus we could go out on the boats, try for elsewhere, see if there's anywhere safe out there."

"That's twice as long in the opposite direction. And we would have to pass through several large cities to get there. Do you really think we should risk it? I don't think I'd feel comfortable dragging the kids all that way," Lori asked.

"There's enough of us to protect them. There's thirteen of us and five of them. And I want to teach Harry how to shoot some point soon, so he can help defend them on the road, giving us an extra fighter. If we travel light, leave some of the cars behind to save fuel and travel through the night, maybe take turns driving, it wouldn't take long. I think that it would be worth it in the end."

"You think it's a good idea to give a kid a gun? They're not toys!" Lori looked horrified at the thought.

"I know they're not. That's why I want to give him one," Sirius gave her an annoyed look. "He's fifteen. Not a little kid. And he's seen more shit in those fifteen years than many adults do in their whole lives. I trust him not to accidentally kill himself or any one else, and, if he does shoot someone on purpose, I'll trust him to have a good reason to do it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the dead aren't the only threat out there," Sirius turned to Rick and Shane. "You guys are police officers, you have to have thought about it. All the scumbags that you dealt with before, what could they do now that there is no stable government to restrict them? This world is now a paradise for them. All the psychopaths and rapists who are now free to act on their urges. I'd rather my kid have a gun and maybe have to kill someone in self defense than be a victim to anyone like that." He looked around at the group, every one of them digesting what he had just said. "I'm taking him to the coast. That's where I feel it would be safest. Come with or don't, that's up to you. I'd prefer it if you did, as there's safety in numbers, but Harry's got to be my primary concern."

A/N. Hey, Guys. Sorry for such a long wait and the shortness of the chapter compared to others, things have been a bit hectic recently. Been a busy year, plus I'm trying to focus some more on some of my own original writing. I will try to update again soon. We are going to start to deviate from the shows canon now.


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